IBM System z10

IBM System z10 is the latest line of IBM mainframes. It was announced on February 26, 2008, and represents the first model powered by the z10 quad core processing engines.

There are five models of z10 Enterprise Class, the E12, E26, E40, E56, and E64, each of the machine type 2097 [cite web| title = IBM System z hardware| url = http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/ | accessdate = 2008-06-20] . The machines are powered by 1 to 4 "books", each comprising memory cards and a multi-chip module (MCM) of processing units (PUs). The E12, E26, E40, and E56 have books with 17 PUs each, and the E64 has one book with 17 PUs and three with 20 PUs.

The number of "characterisable" (or configurable) PUs is indicated in the model designation (e.g., the E26 has 26 characterisable PUs). Depending on the model a PU can be characterised as either Central Processor (CP), Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) processor, z Application Assist Processor (zAAP), z10 Integrated Information Processor (zIIP), or Internal Coupling Facility (ICF) processor. There are more physical PUs in a book than characterisable PUs. For example, the E12 has 17 PUs, of which only 12 are characterisable. The remainder is a mixture of spares and System Assist Processors (SAPs). The SAPs are generally used to drive I/O. There are 2 spares for the whole machine, regardless of machine configuration, and 3 SAPs per book, except for models E56 and E64, which have 10 and 11 SAPs respectively.

The z10 comes with a minimum of 16 GiB of memory and is expandable up to 1.5 TiB for the E56 and E64 systems [cite web |title=IBM System z10 Enterprise Class mainframe server specification summary |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/hardware/z10ec/specifications.html |accessdate=2008-06-20] . In addition to customer specified memory, all systems always come with a 16 GiB dedicated Hardware System Area, off limits to customer memory. All systems also come with decimal floating-point and cryptographic units in each core.

The System z10 adds 192-bit and 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in addition to the 128-Bit AES support already available on the z9.

The z10 Enterprise Class (EC) delivers at least 50% higher capacity per PU than its predecessor the System z9 EC, and approximately 70% more for the whole 64-way z10 EC E64 system compared to the previous 54-way System z9 EC S54 system.

It supports the new z/OS Release 10 operating system, which became available in September 2008, and several prior releases of z/OS.

See also

* z/Architecture
* IBM System z
* IBM System z9

References

External links

* [http://topgun-tech.com/resource-center/zseries-library/articles/marketplace-trends-ibm-zseries Marketplace Trends in IBM zSeries]
* [http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1301967,00.html IBM leaks details of new z10 Enterprise Class mainframe]
* [http://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/fcgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=PM&subtype=SP&appname=STG_ZS_USEN&htmlfid=ZSD03005USEN&attachment=ZSD03005USEN.PDF IBMSystemz10 Enterprise Class – Datasheet]
* [http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/ IBM's System z homepage]
* [http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/abstracts/sg247515.html Draft: IBM System z10 Enterprise Class Technical Introduction]